IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD THE CITY OF CARACOROM • 6
wild asses in very great plenty. For there are sometimes small pine woods' in plenty on VB FB FB VA
the edges of this desert. And when one has ridden these forty days journeys through this L
desert he finds a province towards tramontaine where is a very great city which is called LT
Caracorom; and you shall hear what this city is •hereafter. . And all the abovesaid provinces LT FB P
and cities, that is the city of Saciou, the province of Camul, and the province of Ghinghin talas,
the province of Succiu, and the city of Campfio, and the city of Efína, belong to the great
province of Tangut.
HERE HE TELLS OF THE CITY OF CARACOROM . Caracorom is a city which is all L • 64
of timber and earth, which in my judgement is three miles round, which was VB as they say the first city2 which the Tartars have when they come out vB from .their country. The city indeed is surrounded with a strong mound, because they have z
no supply of stones, • near to which on the outside is a very large castle, and in that is a most R
beautiful palace where the ruler of it dwells. . And when they came out from this land all the y
citizens went to the palace where the lord stayed and holds it.3•
You have learned then and heard of many provinces and kingdoms and cities. Now I wish to tell VA
you of the great Kaan, lord of the Tartars, how he was first made, and what was the occasion of
his lordship. And I will tell you about the deeds of him and of all the Tartars and all VA
their ways, how they first have the rule and how they were spread through the world. FB FB
It was true that in the beginning the Tartars lived in tramontaine about Ciorcia4 and v R
Barg-u. And in that country there is a very great plain which had no dwellings as of y
cities and of villages. But there was good pasture for animals and very great rivers and v y
good water enough. And the Tartars lived there, and they had no lord over their head, but v VA V
chosen to follow that of R, partly supported by V: et molti zente stano per li monti e uale. and by VB: Massi in alguna parte per la montagna et he abitada ene bestie. The present version is supported by VA which puts a stop at "summer". FB omits all mention of mountains and valleys. The passage is perhaps at best incomplete and confused.
' bestaies de pin corrected to boscajes de pin by Roux (1824). TA: boschi di pini FB: bosquez peti, de pin aucunesfoiz
2 lequel fu le primer sire que les tartar ont. L: et ex hac fuit primus dominus LT: in qua fuit primus dominus TA: nella quale fue il primo singniore VB: e segondo dicono el primo signor sono tartaro
VA: in la qual Jo fato fugire el primo signior che aue mai i tartari de soa ente. P: ubi originem habuit
doniinium tartarorum But le primer sire becomes in FA,FB la premiere cite, in V la prima seta
Z: &fuit primus locus ad quem antiquitus tartari se primitus reduxerunt The version follows FB.
3 et quando for finsi de questa tera tuti ando al pala.~o la che staua el signor e quelo teile
It seems to be just possible that this obscure sentence is meant to state that when Caracorom was given up the capital was moved to Cambaluc.
4 en tramentaine entro ciorcia & en cel contree The old versions vary between entonr and inter in place of entro. L: in loco ditto trociorcia
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